Went to St. Martin for the first time, with the guys; back in 1979. Wife and I have since been going to the island on a pretty regular basis since 1994. This is my first trip report, so bare with me. This was also our first time on an airplane, since 2019.

DEPARTING FLIGHT. Booked the weekly PHL-SXM flight 2312 on American Airlines, and paid extra for the non-stop flight. Had a friend pick us up at the house about 9:00 AM on Saturday morning. Traffic was pretty light, so he arrived at the airport less than a half hour later. Check-in was very smooth. I was sure that we were going to be delayed out of Philadelphia, since the plane to take us to St M/artin was coming in from Charlotte, and it arrived about 15 minutes late .Also, the flight appeared to have been oversold, as they were asking for volunteers to take the next available flight, in exchange for a $600 future travel voucher. But, after loading the plane, the pilot pulled away from the gate exactly at the scheduled 11:34 AM departure time, managed to take off less than 10 minutes later, and we arrived in Saint Martin almost 25 minutes early Immigration and baggage claim were pretty smooth, so we grabbed our bags, and went for the rental car.

CAR RENTAL: I booked a Chevrolet Spark with Best Deal Car Rental for $25/day. They did not have any Sparks, so they gave us a Nissan Versa ( a larger vehicle ) for the same price. I only needed to gas up once. Filled up in the middle of the week at the Cadisco in Orient Bay. Gas was 1,23 euros/liter, and they were giving 1 euro to one dollar. 1.23 x 3.78 = about $4.65 per gallon, not much higher than prices in Pennsylvania.

ACCOMODATION: I had shoulder surgery last September, so I wanted a ground floor studio, with a washing machine, so that I could carry as little luggage as possible. We booked a ground floor studio apartment in Orient Village that just happened to be about 5 doors up from the place that we booked via VRBO in 2019, but with a much nicer layout, and a much quieter A/C unit. The location was perfect. 5 minutes from the beach , at Wakiki ( about a 15 minute walk to the chairs in front of the ruins of Club O ). Less than 5 minute walk to the Petit Casino supermarket, and less than 5 minute walk to the restaurants in Orient Village.I did make a stop at Whole Paycheck the night before departure, as they are the only place that sells fresh ( pasteurized, not sterilized, ) milk in a paper container. I froze it, and packed it in my suitcase. I like to put fresh milk in my tea in the morning. None of the supermarkets on the French side had fresh milk. I did see a refrigerated case at the Carrefour supermarket, in Cole Bay, that seemed to be sometimes stocked with fresh dairy products fro the MacArthur Dairy in Florida; but when I was there,all they had were 2 half-gallons of Chocolate Milk. I also usually pack a plastic squeeze bottle of grape jam, as I know that French supermarkets do not carry it. I had to settle for a jar of apricot jam to put on my daily croissants at breakfast.
We used to stay at the Blue Bay Beach Hotel, but that was destroyed by Irma. The hotel re-built on the site - the Orient bay Hotel was pricey, as was La Playa and the Palm Court. They were all over twice, and sometimes three times the price of our rental. We could have survived without a car, if we had so desired.

We were also very close to the theater, Theatre de La Chappelle. They were doing a presentation of Ionesco's La Cantatrice chauve ( Bald Soprano ). My wife was interested, as it would be a good chance for her to improve her French. But, then i reminded her that the last time that we had been to the theater, was in February of 2019, when we had seen a small company in Philadelphia put on Ionesco's play "Rhinoceris". This is the theater of the absurd, an acquired taste that I have not acquired. So, we skipped it.

RESTAURANTS: We ate three times at the Taitu, on the Mout Vernon Road. Best value for money on the island, IMHO. I had the same thing every night, Tuna Steak with soy sauce. My wife was more adventurous, and tries some of the Creole platters. We ate twice al the Lolos in Grand Case. Where else can you get a dinner for 2 for less than $50. My wife always had a few Ti punches with her dinner. They were $2 each. Two rum drinks in any of the Philadelphia , PA area restaurants would cost you almost $40.We had dinner one night at Le Piment, in Orient village. Good food, high prices, and awful service. I think that it was the waiter's first night on the job. I know that there have been some warnings posted on the board about going in to Marigot after dark, but my wife really wanted to eat at Le Bistro Nu. I had the Sea Bass with a lemon Butter Cream sauce, and my wife had the duck. Very good food, and reasonable prices.

BIG PROBLEM: I went to do a laundry on Tuesday morning. We had no water. It had apparently been cut off after 9:)) AM; and did not come back on until after 6. And this pattern was repeated every day. Jean, the owner of the Taitu restaurant told us that work was being done on the desalinization plant, which converts sea water into drinking water. I then made a practice of .purchasing large bottles of water at the supermarket, and putting them in the fridge for drinking water. however, having to fill buckets of water from the swimming pool, in order to flush the toilet, got old fast.

ANOTHER PROBLEM: On Friday morning, I had made reservations to get our return flight COVID tests done at the MedCare Clinic in Simpson Bay. While driving over to the Dutch side, the main road past Grand Case was blocked off, because of some police activity, so we took the old way in to grand Case - the road that goes right past the Grand Case Airport. As I was going thru Grand case, there was a rather large truck coming towards me, going the wrong way on a one-way street, he almost forced me off of the road, and I banged up the right rear quarter panel of the rental car. Hopefully, the collision damage waiver on my credit card will take care of the damage. I am still waiting for an estimate from Best deal Car rentals.

The wind on the beach was stronger than i have ever seen before. We had not intended to spend much time on the beach on Sunday - our first day - but spent even less, as the wind on that day was so strong, that it was blowing up the sand.

RETURN FLIGHT: The owners of the rental allowed us a late check-out. After checking out on Saturday, we drove over to the Movida restaurant in Simpson Bay for lunch. My wife thinks that she may have gotten sick after eating at the Lolo in Grand Case on Thursday night ; perhaps because people were not washing their hands because there was no water. We both had the same thing to eat at the Lolo - grilled Shrimp Kebob - and I was fine.
We split a very nice Cesar salad at Movida, and had mediocre burgers. But, we did not want to eat at the airport.

The airport was chaotic. While we checked in in about a half hour, the waiting area was chaotic, and barely air conditioned. We purchased a lot of $3 bottles of water, some of which were not chilled, to keep hydrated. American Airlines was offering $1,200 vouchers to anyone who was willing to take a seat " on the next available flight ". But, we are both still working, and could not chance being stuck on the island for a few more days They do appear to be working on the airport, and the had signs up everywhere, claiming that the airport would be fully re-opened by 2023.. Our flight ended up departing almost 2 hours late, and we arrived back in Philadelphia at about 10:30 PM. We sat waiting for a jet way driver for about 15 minutes, but it was pretty smooth after that. My sister picked us up at the airport, and we were home before midnight. .

All and all, a pretty good trip. Would have been much better if we had more water and less wind.. I will book the same studio for march 2023, as soon as the flight schedule is posted. If American Airlines goes back to daily PHL-SXM flights in season, we will try to book for 10 days - a week goes by too fast.

All and all, not a bad trip!! We've stayed a few places in the orient area. IMHO. Bruno"Paradise O" Lemoine has the best place for us. It's a 5 unit villa's with in ground pool over looking Orient . Full AC, kitchen and kitchenet1-2 bedrooms ,deck TV lovely bathrooms. Not sure about laundry, but if you asked. Easy to get to, after entering Orient from the main gate, make the first right. He is located up the hill a couple of blocks up!!! I'm sorry I don't have pixx for you. But it's lovely. Bruno and his wife are "Superb" hosts!! If you ever ate at LeCottage, that was his former restaurant. You would have met him there. Just a amazing person!! Contact info: ugomar@wanadoo.fr cell# 06-90-75-91-05

Sorry about the water issue. That seems to be a problem in Orient Village of late. Glad the trip overall was good.

Thank you for sharing your trip. Sounds like all things worked out and a good time was ultimately enjoyed. Hope your wife was okay and able to travel without issue.

And I can only say, I wish they would offer us that kind of money to give up our seats. Only once, in 1983, over all our many trips to the island, were we offered the ‘bump’ and it was for $600.00 - U.S. CASH - no vouchers. There were four of us and the airline really wanted our seats but sadly, we weren’t able to take the ‘bump’ . In the end we could have but didn’t know that when it mattered and we had to decide we’d take it.And of course, it has never happened again.

Again, thanks for sharing your trip…..😊😊

Hope the car coverage works out for you. As far as 1,200 I'm hoping they offer that for us when we leave on a Friday as I still have a night at Flamingo I could still use for next day flight.

I guess if I had to pick my poison, I would take a water cut off, over an electric black out. I thought that the water outage was on the entire French side, and not limited to the Orient Village area.
We did have an electrical outage of about a half hour, one morning. I had previously purchased a light weight high priced lithium-ion battery for a trip to Africa ( but the electricity never went out in Morocco ). I plugged it into my CPAP machine, so that I could sleep through power outages. But, of course, the A/C cut off with the power, and the studio did start to get warm, before the power came back on.

I suspect that at least part of the problem stems from the fact that the non-stop Philadelphia to St Martin flight is now operated only once a week, instead of on a daily basis, in season. Demand exceeds capacity.
Also, American Airlines flies an Airbus A-319 on this route. In the old USAirways days, USAir operated a B-757, which was a larger aircraft. Also, the B-757 was able to clear the mountains at the end of the runway, after takeoff. While it was after dark when we finally took off for Philadelphia for the return flight, I am pretty sure that our plane took off 'backwards"; that is to say that we flew over the beach and water after takeoff.
With rising jet fuel prices, I don't think that the airlines will operate any flight unless the plane is almost full.

Two bedrooms is more than we need. Even after paying an extra 60 euros for amid-week maid service, we only averaged paying about $150/night - and the studio was very nice and had a king-sized bed.
I could not figure out how to work the satellite feed on the TV. But, we did have Netflix. So, most nights we watched re-runs of Downton Abbey.

Super U in hope estate had fresh milk in fridge section from that Florida place, also with sour cream which is 3x as creme fraiche (which is way better!!!). The PHL-SXM flight is now so limited we just fly either JFK or EWR anymore. Sorry about the water issues.

Whole Foods charged $2.69 for a quart of "organic" skim milk in a paper container. If I could time a trip to New York State before my Saint Martin trip, Stewarts Shops sells milk in paper containers at normal prices.
Getting to JFK from my house is a big pain. Newark is better. but nothing is as convenient as PHL. We did, however, pay a premium for the Philadelphia non-stop SXM flight.